SM embracing 'locally grown' with new farm

City plans to create subscription farm where residents can buy fresh fruit, vegetables

SAN MARCOS  San Marcos wants to join the locally grown produce trend in an unusual way: City officials say they plan to create a subscription farm on vacant city property so residents can eat more fresh fruit and vegetables.

Subscription farms, where customers agree in advance to buy weekly boxes of produce, have been popping up across the county and nation more frequently in recent years.

Sometimes called “community supported agriculture,” the farms are typically owned and operated privately. But the San Marcos farm would become the first in the county to be sponsored and coordinated by a city.

Karl Schwarm, San Marcos’ director of housing and neighborhood services, said he hopes to quickly recruit a farmer and hundreds of customers interested in eating the fresh produce that would be grown at the site. Schwarm said he’s earmarked five vacant city properties for the farm.

“Eating locally grown food is a trendy thing right now because it’s fresher and healthier,” said Schwarm. “And we’ll be making vacant land productive while we wait for it to get developed.”

Leaders of the local agriculture industry called the idea innovative and said the San Marcos subscription farm could become a model for other cities and government agencies.

“It’s great that a city is getting involved in the whole new movement going on right now,” said Daniel Hofshi, manager of Eli’s Farms in Fallbrook, which became a subscription farm last year. “It shows that they realize these farms can solve problems.”

Those problems include air pollution generated by transporting produce hundreds of miles from farms to faraway customers.

“Why grow so much produce here in San Diego and send it all over the world when we can sell it to local people?” Hofshi said.

Subscription farms also provide growers a built-in customer base, allowing them to spend less time negotiating with local grocers and traveling to farmer’s markets.

Customers agree to pay somewhere between $15 and $30 a week for a box of produce that gets delivered to their home or that they pick up at the farm.

“You have guaranteed income and sales,” said Hofshi, who has about 200 customers. “And it also reduces waste because we plant just the right amount. It allows us to hit the sweet spot with our production.”

Greig Tor Guthey, a Cal State San Marcos public policy professor who recently co-authored a book on locally grown food, said San Marcos has the right idea.

“This seems very forward-thinking,” he said. “When you see cities getting involved, that’s a good sign. I definitely think this could be a model.”

But Guthey said the city faces some challenges.

“The trick will be getting the right person to farm the land,” he said.

Joan Marrero, owner and operator of Escondido’s JR Organics subscription farm for the last eight years, said her industry has many challenges and risks.

“Having the land is just the first step,” she said. “You have to have water and the buds, and you have to deal with climate change. It’s hard to grow vegetables in San Diego.”